


Caim

by JediMordsith



Series: Lachesism 'Verse [2]
Category: Star Wars, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: Alpha/Omega, Committed Relationship, F/M, References to past trauma, Slice of Life, and Mara's trying, good relationships are a learned skill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:15:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27089998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JediMordsith/pseuds/JediMordsith
Summary: Mara breathed through the knot balling in her stomach as she punched in her Alpha's routing code. Belonging was a choice, she was learning. A choice made over and over, day by day. A hundred thousand tiny instances of trust offered, accepted, and reciprocated, however spectacularly vulnerable they felt in the moment.
Relationships: Mara Jade/Luke Skywalker
Series: Lachesism 'Verse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1977232
Comments: 12
Kudos: 36





	Caim

Mara’s knees ached. Her left patella was subluxated and both knees were bloody, every jerking tremor that shot through her grinding them into the rough durasteel floor. Blood trickled from the tearing bite burning on the back of her neck down over her shoulder. Each drop that dripped from her skin to pool on the floor seemed to ring in her ears and echo through the hollow space inside her.

She shouldn’t have been able to hear anything over the buzz of the pressor field and the whir of the ventilation system sweeping the offending odors of her heat and the Alpha’s lust out of the cell and replacing them with chilled, antiseptic-tinged air. But she heard every drop, each one a condemnation.

_Un. Kept. Un. Kept. Un. Kept._

Unable to speak and too empty to weep, she remained where she was, bound with knees and elbows digging into the ground, every inch of her unwillingly motionless and cold.

The snick of a door roused her sluggish mind. Her eyes slitted open, red and stinging with exhaustion. Before she could blink them clear, a scent wafted past and her gut clenched, sudden panic pouring through the hollowness between her ribs.

_No._

The door snapped shut. Fabric rustled. Fire scalded through ice-crusted veins and the pressor field screeched as the intensity shot up, keeping her immobile as she struggled.

 _No._ She wasn’t in heat anymore. She was only supposed to be taken when she was in heat!

The Alpha stalked closer, clothing falling to the ground in her narrow line of vision. The smell of his lust made her gag, her lungs burning as she choked for air.

_No. Nonono —_

Mara jerked awake with a gasp, her chest heaving as she gulped for breath. The air that filled her lungs was recycled but warm. It smelled ever-so-faintly of the Krant pine cleanser she periodically ran through the ventilation ducts to keep them free of build-up.

Around her, soft adesote sheets and velvety blankets bunched and twisted where she’d kicked them off in her thrashing. The chrono on the wall glowed softly. _0220._ Still the middle of the night. 

Shoving upright, Mara brought her knees to her chest and buried her face in her hands, shuddering. _Safe,_ she thought, focusing on the silky fabric beneath her bare feet, the thin straps of her sleeping shift resting on her unbloodied shoulders, and the familiar hum of the _Sabre_ sleeping around her.

The Emperor was dead and she was no longer unkept, unchosen. She had an Alpha —an Alpha who loved her, in spite of everything. Loved her enough that he’d gifted her this ship, a fortress and bulwark against the galaxy, within which she was wholly safe… from everything but herself.

 _Luke._

Reflexively, Mara wrapped herself around the tiny spark that pulsed within her chest. She was too far from Yavin for their bond to be anything stronger here unless they both reached and, for a moment, she started to tell herself it was enough. That he was busy and if she couldn’t sleep there was work to be done — so much work, always these days.

She stopped the thoughts in their tracks. _I know it won’t be easy, making this — being mates —_ _work. But we can. And I want to._

Luke had said that to her, way back on the _Wild Karrde_ when they’d first agreed to be together. He’d said it again since then, a dozen times in as many different ways over the last year-and-a-half.

 _I want that, too,_ she’d said every time in return. But the words were meaningless if she didn’t back them up with action, weren’t they?

Stiffly, she climbed out of their snug alcove bed, pausing to right the covers and smoothing her hands over them apologetically before moving on slightly unsteady feet toward the closet. It was a walk-in, but small. From the back, Mara pulled one of Luke’s spare Jedi robes. She had her own, of course — she’d finished her training and completed her trials with ease once she’d been freed from heat suppressors and could access her full Force giftings.

But her cloaks didn’t smell like him.

Wrapping the cloak — and her Alpha’s comforting scent — around herself, Mara padded barefoot toward the cockpit. She knew every inch of the _Sabre_ as well as she knew herself. It was strange, having a home. Odd, in a wonderful sort of way she was still adjusting to.

Just as she was still coming to terms with what it meant to have an Alpha. To _belong_ to someone, intimately. It was breathtaking, but it could be uncomfortable, too, after having been alone so long. Like now.

Sinking into the pilot’s seat, Mara folded the robe a little tighter around herself and brought the comm system to life. She breathed through the knot balling in her stomach as she punched in the routing code. Belonging was a _choice,_ she was learning. A choice made over and over, day by day. A hundred thousand tiny instances of trust offered, accepted, and reciprocated, however spectacularly vulnerable they felt in the moment.

The comm buzzed. Once, twice. Again. He might be busy. Teaching, or in a meeting. She hadn’t checked his schedule, first. Hadn’t risked the delay.

“Mara!” The comm burst to life, a blue-tinged, half-sized image of Luke blossoming to life over the array. Massive square blocks of stone met at an angle behind him and Mara realized he must have literally ducked into a corner somewhere to take her call.

A smile tugged at her lips and she hurried to toggle the switch from audio-only to visual on her end. “Did I interrupt a class?” 

“It’s lunch,” he shook his head, his too-long hair waving with the movement.

Mara’s fingers itched to brush his unruly locks back. To feel his solid warmth against her.

Her Alpha frowned, glancing down — undoubtedly at his chrono — then back to her, his eyes raking over her more intently. “It’s the middle of the night your time, isn’t it?”

Mara’s hands fisted in the cloak. “I… had a dream.” The words were awkward on her tongue. She’d not been raised to this, sharing her private traumas and seeking comfort. It still felt… off. Selfish. “It woke me.”

Luke’s jaw tightened, the flash in his eyes telling her he understood. The bond flickered — a request — and Mara gladly poured her energy into it, fanning it to a liquid flame that slid through them both, mingling their essences so fully that for a moment she could feel the stone at her Alpha’s back and smell the jungle a few steps from his hiding place.

Luke’s tension melted into a smile. “That’s my cloak,” he said, indulgently.

Mara lifted her chin and sniffed. “It was in _my_ closet. Finders keepers, Skywalker. Isn’t that what your little hellions say?”

He laughed and she felt it shiver through her as clearly as she heard it over the speakers. “It is,” he agreed, his blue eyes twinkling. “They’ve been asking for you, by the way. Jaina insists that if you’re their aunt now you should be required to attend every family vacation.”

Mara feigned alarm to cover the affection welling in her chest. “Absolutely not! I’m no good at vacations, Jedi. Karrde can attest to that.”

“I don’t know,” Luke’s grin turned sly. “I’d say your last mini-vacation was a smashing success.”

The image of her nude body sprawled on a blanket, glistening with salt spray from the ocean and utterly limp from a thorough kriffing flowed across the bond. Luke’s smugness saturated the memory and Mara fired one back — his naked behind illuminated by a shaft of sunlight as he staggered out of bed in search of breakfast, groaning as his muscles protested the hard use she’d put him to for most of the night.

Luke sighed, melancholy sweeping over them both. “I miss you,” he said, softly.

“Same,” Mara whispered, her heart aching. She tugged the cloak even more snugly around herself. “I didn’t mean to — I didn’t want to dampen your day.” She stumbled over the words. “I just — the dream…”

“You were doing what I asked,” he affirmed, his pride leaking between them. Concern he couldn’t quite muffle followed it. “This is the second time in as many weeks.” He hesitated. “Do you think it’s being so close to Imperial space?” He asked, carefully. “Because I’ve had dreams, too.”

“Of?” Mara prompted, fairly certain she already knew. He’d mentioned it obliquely in a recent message he’d left when their schedules hadn’t aligned enough to catch one another.

“Someone hurting you.” All traces of humor were gone.

“Megalion?”

“I can’t tell.” Luke’s shoulders hunched in a shrug, then squared determinedly. His gaze met hers, intense enough to make a lesser being quail. “I _will_ fight for you, if it comes to that. You know that.”

Mara smiled, pushing reassurance across the bond. “I know.”

She did. Artoo had slipped her a holo of Luke’s incandescent fury when the former Moff had approached him about “arranging” for her to be available to him during her next heat. The man didn’t know they were lovers, of course. They’d been careful to keep that under wraps for all save their closest family and friends. But her promotion to full Jedi had been published, however low-key they’d try to keep it, and he’d seen what he thought was an opportunity.

Didn’t the Jedi need funds, after all? Wouldn’t they like an opportunity to look for Force sensitives within Imperial space? He’d gladly provide both. They had only to send their newest member to conduct the search. She’d need to be “handled” during her heat anyway, and why not leave that to someone who knew how?

If he’d made his request in person instead of by comm, Mara knew, he’d have been dismembered on the spot. She kept no secrets from her Alpha and Luke knew that Megalion was among the Alphas who had abused her under Palpatine’s rule. As her true Alpha, it was Luke’s right to claim justice on her behalf. That killing him would render the Moff unable to hurt anyone else would simply have been a bonus. 

“I can’t imagine he’d be foolish enough to try,” Luke said, pulling her out of her thoughts. “I made it clear that any aggression against a Jedi would not be tolerated, and he has to know Karrde is the same about his people.”

 _You’re safe,_ Mara heard between the lines. _You’re mine. This isn’t like before. It will never be like before again._ His love, thick and rich as Akivan honey, soaked into her, chasing away the remains of the dream and her skittishness about comming.

“I almost wish he would,” she said, pretending to pout. “I haven’t gotten to shoot a single thing with the quad lasers since the latest upgrades. I can’t think of a better target.”

“Hey, now.” Luke summoned a put-out expression, his mirth bubbling between them. “I installed them! I should get to try them first.”

“Mmmm,” Mara pretended to consider that. “I _suppose_ ,” she said, wiggling one hand free of the robe to tap her chin in contemplation, “we could find an empty asteroid belt to test them during the next heat cycle.”

“I’ll have Artoo hunt up some options,” Luke promised immediately. His gaze darted away and Mara picked up someone calling his name.

“You have to go,” she said, sparing him from having to say it. “I won’t get to call for a couple ofdays — I’m leaving Temako this afternoon and I’ll be in hyperspace for around 40 hours.”

He made a face. “You’ll com when you reach your next stop?”

“I’m rendezvousing with the _Wild Karrde_ , so I can’t promise I’ll be able to get to a comm right off. But I’ll send word as soon as I can.” She paused. “You might be able to feel me. I’ll be closer. Only a few systems away, at least until we make the next jump.”

Luke smiled. “I’ll watch for you.” He cocked his head, his expression earnest. “You’ll try to sleep again? You’re working too hard to skip any rest.”

“So are you,” she answered pointedly, raising an eyebrow.

“Point taken,” he ducked his head sheepishly. “I’ll get eight hours tonight if you will. Deal?”

A lump formed in her throat. She was going to have to let go of the link, let the contentment flowing through her dwindle back down to a pilot light.

“Dream of me?” She cleared her throat and held the link a little tighter. “Good dreams.”

“The best,” he nodded, pushing a little harder through the link to offer her a caress. “Sleep well, Sweetheart.”

Unable to speak, Mara nodded, too, pushing her love across the bond in a rush before she let it go. Her Alpha’s presence faded but the sweetness of his mental touch lingered. Suddenly tired, Mara dragged herself to her feet and headed back to the stateroom.

In the dark, she crawled into bed, Luke’s cloak still swathed around her. Burrowing into the nest of blankets and pillows that populated their bed, she closed her eyes and breathed in the scents of her Alpha and home. _Comfort._

 _Soon,_ she reminded herself as sleep swept over her. Soon they’d both have their responsibilities settled enough that they could be together full time. Sooner still she’d reach another heat cycle and have him all to herself for days. 

Soon.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I didn't initially intend to turn Lachesism into a series, but here we are. As it stands, I've got one more planned to round things out. (To be posted soon.)
> 
> (Many thanks to @celinamarness and @evilmouse for beta-ing this!)


End file.
